RECAP: Ducks 5, Panthers 4 (OT)

SUNRISE, Fla. – The Florida Panthers believe they strayed from their usual game plan during a 5-4 overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks at Amerant Bank Arena on Monday.

Getting away from their surgically tight execution on defense, the Panthers opened up their game a little bit too much in what ended up being a run-and-gun affair with the Ducks.

Picking up a point in defeat, Florida is still sitting pretty at 27-13-3 in the standings.

“I think it was more of an open game than we wanted, and that’s more the style they want to play,” Panthers forward Sam Reinhart said. “I think they did a better job of dictating the play. … Credit to them. We could be a little better, for sure.”

Not long after Anthony Stolarz denied Ross Johnston on a breakaway, the Panthers found themselves in their own position to strike. On the power play, Sam Bennett beat Ducks netminder John Gibson from the slot to make it 1-0 at 8:29 of the first period.

Despite being on the penalty kill, the Panthers doubled their lead when Niko Mikkola carried the puck all the way up the ice and threaded a pass through a defender’s legs right onto the hot stick of Reinhart, who then tapped in a shot to make it 2-0 at 17:35.

Stretching his goal streak to seven games, Reinhart, who owns the longest goal streak in the NHL this season, is now tied with Hall of Famer Pavel Bure for the longest goal streak by a Panther.

With a power-play goal in each of his previous six games, Reinhart also became the first player in NHL history to score a goal on special teams in seven straight games.

“Can’t even keep track of them at this point,” Bennett said of Reinhart’s mountain of milestones this season. “When they said 32^nd during the game, some of us looked at each other on the bench and were like, ’Thirty-two already?’ That’s impressive.”

Not letting the Panthers take a two-goal lead into the first intermission, Alex Killorn cut the deficit in half for the Ducks when he scored on a breakaway to make it 2-1 at 19:56.

Evening the score early in the second period, the Ducks potted a shorthanded goal of their own when Adam Henrique -- a man who’s been scoring clutch goals in Sunrise since his days with the New Jersey Devils -- beat Stolarz from the slot to make it 2-2 at 5:24.

“I think we took it too lightly,” Bennett said of the Panthers not being able to put the Ducks away. “We got up by a couple goals and started playing a little too comfortable. We just let them hang around and hang around. We didn’t play hard enough.”

Pushing back for the Panthers, Carter Verhaeghe fired a shot off the post and in from the high slot on the power play to make it 3-2 at 9:36. With his 23 goals trailing only Reinhart on the Panthers, Verhaeghe has scored seven times in his last nine contests.

Netting his second goal of the game and earning his first multi-goal game of the campaign, Bennett took a no-look, cross-ice feed from Matthew Tkachuk and blasted a one-timer past Gibson’s glove from inside the right circle to make it 4-2 at 12:49.

Not backing down, the Ducks responded when Jakob Silfverberg swiped a puck from a defender, skated to the net and tucked a backhand shot around Stolarz to make it 4-3 at 14:58.

At 3:45 of the third period, Troy Terry roofed a backhander to make it 4-4.

Keepin the Panthers off the board over the final 20 minutes, Gibson stopped all 10 shots he faced in the third period, including gobbling up a screaming one-timer from Verhaeghe with just over eight minutes remaining in regulation.

Heading to the bench with just under six minutes left in regulation, Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov did not take another shift after that due to a lower-body injury.

Thankfully, Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said the injury isn’t considered serious.

“He’s been dealing with something that we don’t want to get worse, and it didn’t,” Maurice said. “I think we got to him early enough. We’re expecting him to be a player for us against Detroit [on Wednesday]. Just didn’t want to risk that at this time.”

After being denied by Stolarz on his initial shot in overtime, Alex Killorn chased the puck down, carried it back into the slot and cashed in on his second chance to lock in the 5-4 win for the Ducks just 48 seconds into the extra frame.

Stolarz finished with 21 saves, while Gibson stopped 29 shots.

With the win, Anaheim improved to 15-27-1.

“We had a good first period and then I thought we were a little arrogant with the puck in the second,” Maurice said. “We started to get beat one-on-one. If you get beat one-on-one, that’s a tell for something else that’s going on in your game. We weren’t happy with the result. I don’t think we liked the way we played and are probably going to leave this one right here.”

THEY SAID IT

“I think we were a little soft in some areas. We got a little run-and-gun. They’re opportunistic. I think we had the better end of the chances, but that’s what happens when you play like that.” – Carter Verhaeghe

“They dictated. They wanted it open and we’re not going to win hockey games like that. That’s not what we’re built for. We’ve got to tighten it up, for sure.” – Sam Reinhart

“It was kind of just back-and-forth hockey. We weren’t playing hard hockey. Sometimes you get comfortable in those games and just want to make plays. It ended up biting us.” – Sam Bennett

CATS STATS

- Sam Reinhart scored his team-leading third shorthanded goal of the season.

- Anton Lundell went 7-for-9 (77.8%) in the faceoff circle.

- Eetu Luostarinen blocked a team-high three shots.

- The Panthers led 73-50 in shot attempts.

- Anthony Stolarz made five high-danger saves, per NaturalStatTrick.com.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The Panthers will continue their homestand with an important divisional matchup against the Detroit Red Wings at Amerant Bank Arena on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET.

For tickets, click HERE.